Lights out but everyone’s in at Hilton!

Hilton Hotels, London’s largest hotelier, has joined Capital Radio’s campaign to stage a one-hour blackout across the city. Having recently announced plans to reduce its Carbon Footprint in the UK & Ireland by 56% in 2007, Hilton will be switching off all exterior lights and signage at its London hotels for the hour slot of 9-10pm on Thursday 21 June.

John Philip, Hilton’s Regional Vice President for London, said: “As a company we are committed to reducing our emissions and are keen to support initiatives such as the Capital Radio campaign.

“While the disruption to guests will be minimal we will be saving around 500kw of energy and hopefully our efforts will have some real visual impact, particularly at iconic properties such as the London Hilton on Park Lane.”

At 9pm engineering staff will be safely switching off the lights and then turning them back on again at 10pm.

Each of the hotels, totalling 6,500 bedrooms including the three airport properties, will otherwise be operating as normal.

Key central locations include the Waldorf Hilton, the trafalgar and Hilton London Tower Bridge.

The change to carbon free electricity, which is helping Hilton to reduce emission so dramatically, follows an investment of £4 million in 2006.

This saw a reduction of energy consumption of up to 27% in certain hotels across the UK and Ireland. With a further investment of £4million planned in 2007, Hilton expects to see a further reduction of more than 10% in the hotels within this programme.

Specifically in London Hilton has started work on a £1.25m project at certain key hotels which will lead to an estimated £314k saving in the first year.

Simon Vincent, Area President for Hilton Hotels in the UK and Ireland said: “As the leading hotel chain, we realise we have a great responsibility to take the industry lead and introduce measures that will help protect the environment, which is an enormous challenge.

“Tackling it requires an incremental approach with workable business solutions, and a change in mindset from the hotel’s front desk to the management board room.”

Hilton has implemented a comprehensive environmental strategy with key strands including the training of more than 15,000 team members in cultural energy reductions.